Sidney Elwood Beckwith of Clermont, Florida and Shelter Island passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 9, 2020 at the Brandley Hospice House in Summerfield, Florida. He was 101 years old.
A private family visitation will take place at the Shelter Island Funeral Home. Private graveside services will be held Monday, May 18, 11AM at the Shelter Island Cemetery.
(Follow this link to find out how friends and members of the public may pay their respects as he is laid to rest.)
Sidney (Sid to his friends) was born July 19, 1918 in New London, Connecticut. He grew up on Shelter Island, where he was well known for his lifetime achievements in sports from his early years of playing team sports at Shelter Island High School where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, to his running 10K races on Shelter Island and in Florida, and his acclaimed golfing record.
Sid loved golf, his family recalled, and he kept honest and accurate records. He’d shot his age or better 1,464 times and had the signed score cards to prove it. For his sports achievements at his age he was dubbed “the Iron Man”.
His work career started as a bank teller at Brooklyn Dime Savings Bank. Then WWII broke out and he resigned to join the U.S. Army and defend his country. After the war, he returned to his beloved Shelter Island and worked as a plumber and Batman at first, but decided a career in public health was his destiny. He spent a season in a sanitation training school in Buffalo, and returned to Shelter Island and a job with Suffolk County Department of Health.
He worked his way up, his family recalls, achieving a Senior Sanitarian position as one of only three in the state without a master’s degree. He had some significant accomplishments while in the department including cleaning up Suffolk County labor camps and improving the quality of life of migrant workers and their families.
He retired after 26 years with the department and dabbled in real estate for a few years. But then he realized that he could fill his time with golfing and playing bridge. And he did both well.
Sid was predeceased by his bride of 55 years, Anita Geraldine Beckwith (Gerri), and his son David Beckwith, who passed away on April 22, 2020.
He is survived by his daughter, Cecelia Beckwith-Revitz (Ron); grandson, Ryan Revitz; granddaughter, Rachel Revitz ( Ricky); adopted grandsons, John, Jacob and Joseph Gilligan; beloved nieces and nephews in an extended family of five generations that includes Charlotte Beckwith Perez (Bob); Diane Beckwith Kilb (Alfred); Charles Sidney Beckwith (Ann); Melanie Beckwith Mitchell (Ron), and all of their children and grandchildren, as well as many adopted grandchildren who called him grandpa or Jaja from Africa and US from the ministry of his daughter.
In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations in Sid’s memory to Lighthouse of Hope for the Nations. Inc. 15471 SE 175th Street, Weirsdale, Florida 32195 or Life Church A G Missions, 4001 Picciola Road, Fruitland Park, Fl. 34731, or the Shelter Island Ambulance Foundation, PO Box 547, Shelter Island, NY 11964.
